https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/31/anchor-outs-sausalito-california-richardson-bay

For decades, a group known as the “anchor-outs” enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence in a corner of the San Francisco Bay. The mariners carved out an affordable, bohemian community on the water, in a county where the median home price recently hit $1.8m.

But their haven could be coming to an end – and with it, a rapidly disappearing way of life.

The anchor-outs live aboard semi-derelict boats abutting the town of Sausalito, an upscale enclave just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin county where mansions boast floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. Tourists arrive by ferry from the city on weekends, strolling the promenade of restaurants, wine bars, art galleries and boutiques.

The agency that oversees the local waterway known as the Richardson Bay has in recent months begun a fervent crackdown on the boat dwellers, who they say are here illegally and pose a threat to safety and the marine environment. Determined to clear the waters, a hardline harbormaster has even begun confiscating and destroying boats that overstay their welcome.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be interesting to hear from some locals. Sounds a bit like the "wrong kind of people" living to near some valuable real estate.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/25/howard-university-students-protest-housing-conditions

Mold. Rats. Cockroaches. Mushrooms growing under the sink. For undergraduate students attending Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, these and other conditions have prompted students to protest, staging a sit-in and sleeping at the university’s main student center for the past two weeks.

Since 12 October they have protested what they describe as deplorable housing conditions, including mold on expired air filters, rat and cockroach infestations, and mushrooms blooming on dorm room ceilings and under sink despite on-campus housing costing upwards of $12,000 a year.

The group’s demands center on concrete plans from the university to address housing woes and solutions to issues around transparency. They want an in-person town hall with Howard’s president Wayne A I Frederick, a permanent reinstatement of all affiliate positions on Howard’s board of trustees, a meeting with student leadership to outline plans addressing housing-related issues, as well as immunity – legal, disciplinary, and academic – for protesting students as participants have received threats of expulsion and other punishment for their participation.

But they have been met with hostility from university officials. Emails from Howard University officials such as Howard vice-president of student affairs Cynthia Evers have also threatened to punish students who participate in the sit-in, including with expulsion.


___________________________________________________________________________'


School receives a ton of money yet doesn't take care of the basics. Many of the students are upper middle class and are not used to living in such deplorable conditions. Another set of bizarre choices such as hiring Phylicia Rashād or getting rid of Classics education.

Experts Warn Everything That Will Happen Between Now And November 2022 Could Spell Trouble For Democrats In Midterms


WASHINGTON—Stressing that literally any occurrence in the coming year might threaten the party’s fragile hold on power, political experts warned Wednesday that everything that will happen between now and November 2022 could spell trouble for Democrats in the midterms. “Unfortunately for Democrats, anything that occurs in the next 12 months—really anything at all—could be a portent of a midterm upset,” said political analyst Gary Chiang, describing how every coming event that transpires before the election could have serious repercussions for the Democratic Party, including passing climate change legislation, not passing climate change legislation, a proxy war in Asia, Nancy Pelosi sitting down in a chair, the death of giant panda Mei Xiang, winning down-ballot races, the complete implementation of the Build Back Better agenda, or a shortage of turkey around Thanksgiving. “An oil spill in the Gulf Coast? That’s a worrying sign for Democrats. On the other hand, a cloudy day in Washington in January? That could also prove disastrous come November. Really anything that happens in America or abroad from here on out might destroy the party’s chances to retain their congressional majority.” Chiang added that the only event that would not spell doom for Democrats would be for the White House to announce a full-scale ground invasion of Afghanistan.

https://www.theonion.com/experts-warn-everything-that-will-happen-between-now-an-1847901377


Somebody has been reading General Discussion right her at DU.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/16/female-spanish-thriller-writer-carmen-mola-revealed-to-be-three-men

A million euro literary prize has lured three Spanish men out of anonymity, to reveal that they are behind ultra-violent Spanish crime thrillers marketed as the work of “Spain’s Elena Ferrante”

The men, all in their 40s and 50s, denied choosing a female pseudonym to help sell the books. “We didn’t hide behind a woman, we hid behind a name,” Antonio Mercero told Spanish newspaper El País. “I don’t know if a female pseudonym would sell more than a male one, I don’t have the faintest idea, but I doubt it.”


Beatriz Gimeno, a feminist, writer, activist – and former head of one of Spain’s national equality bodies, the Women’s Institute – attacked the men for creating a female persona in their publicity for Carmen Mola books, over several years.


Last year, a regional branch of the Women’s Institute recommended one of Mola’s works as part of a selection of books by female authors including Margaret Atwood that could “help us understand the reality and the experiences of women in different periods of history and contribute to raising awareness about rights and freedoms”.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

There is something refreshingly hilarious about all this. It is gender politics put in a blender and the button hit all so softly.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/08/energy-crisis-nuclear-natural-gas-renewable-climate/

In virtually every country that has closed nuclear plants, clean electricity has been replaced with dirty power.

For years, the proponents of wind and solar energy have promised us a green future with electricity too cheap to meter, new energy infrastructure with little environmental impact on the land, and deep cuts in carbon emissions. But despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, that future has yet to materialize. Instead, many of the places that are furthest along in transitioning to renewable energy are today facing a crisis of power shortages, sky-high electricity prices, and flat or rising carbon emissions.

Germany is looking at the biggest jump in greenhouse gas emissions in 30 years thanks to the efforts of the Green party to replace nuclear with coal.

The Labor Party in Britain famously marched for decades against nuclear power and against the closing of coal mines.

We need to look in the mirror and realise that global warming crisis is too important to allow chicken littles to continue to dictate the burning of natural gas and coal.

Vacate notices leave St. Pete residents asking: ‘Where are we supposed to go?’

On Sept. 30, residents at the Stanton Hotel and Stanton Apartments, located on the corner of 2nd Avenue N and 3rd Street, received notices that their tenancy was being terminated and had 15 to 30 days to vacate the property, depending on their lease.

The move comes as the current property owner, TJM Properties, is in contract negotiations to sell the Stanton property to New Hotel Collection, which owns a boutique hotel next door and wants to expand.

Residents at the Stanton currently pay differing amounts in rent each month, depending on the size and renovation status of the room or apartment. The rents of residents interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times ranged from $640 - $1,100 a month. The average cost of one-bedroom apartment in St. Petersburg, according to zumper.com, is $1,600.


While removing low income housing often makes downtowns "Nicer" it does rob local businesses of much needed labor at a time where there is a severe labor shortage.

This is yet another liberal city that is becoming more white and more expensive every year.

Still funnier than anything on SNL.

CBS News reports that a study published in the journal Pediatrics has found that more than 140,000 children in the United States have lost primary caregivers from covid-19. The highest losses are in New York, Texas, and California, and “Adjusted for child population size, Arizona, New Mexico and the District of Columbia were among the hardest hit.”

While more than half of COVID-associated deaths occurred among White people, nearly seven in 10 children facing the death of a caregiver as a result of these deaths were children of color. Two-thirds of kids in California who lost a primary caregiver were Hispanic. In New Mexico, the share of primary caregiver deaths that took place among American Indian and Native Alaskan kids was more than triple their share of the population. Across southern states, Black children made up a larger share of those with caregiver deaths than their share of the population.

https://jezebel.com/over-140-000-children-in-the-us-have-lost-a-primary-car-1847818665

The case for cutting meat consumption is so compelling that you would think politicians would be less shy about making it. Yet while campaigners warn with increasing urgency that global livestock production is accelerating climate breakdown and causing devastating damage to nature and human health, governments remain reluctant to tackle meat-eating.

Industrial livestock systems designed to extract ever greater commercial value from farmed animals have repeatedly been shown to depend on cruelty to animals and the armies of workers processing them.

Animal foods have been long promoted as superior as the source of “complete” protein, containing in one package all the amino acids we need for the body’s building blocks. Plant food that only contained some of them, or needed to be eaten in combination to obtain all of them, was seen as inferior.

Protein deficiencies are rare in developed countries and most of us, including vegetarians, eat much more than we need. Yet the cultural preferences persist.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2021/sep/30/less-meat-is-good-for-us-and-the-planet-why-are-politicians-shy-to-say-so

The full article is a good one. Honestly, it is a little pollyannnish. We have yet to eliminate slavery from our food supply (Cough Thai fishing vessels Cough).


For example, a farm in Spain might supply oranges to a distributor who then on-sells to a grocery chain in the UK and a grocery chain in Australia. The Australian and British customers may ask the distributor to complete a questionnaire. The distributor will need to ask its farmers what the status ogf their indentured workforce. – including the farm in Spain. The farm in Spain may not be able to use slaves for production that goes to those distributors.

A Black family from Virginia who say their neighbor has been playing recordings of racial slurs and monkey noises since their arrival received no recourse after police deemed their neighbors’ actions “not criminally actionable”, reports CNN.

“We noticed a little erratic behavior like these blinking lights that are on a sensor. When my family or any other family leaves or returns to their homes, they all start to blink,” Martinez said, in addition to loud music that the neighbor had customized for each family.

Soon after the Martinez family called the local police to complain about the blinking lights and music, Martinez said her neighbor’s erratic behavior escalated. The same neighbor began playing monkey noises whenever Martinez’s family would arrive or leave their house. The neighbor also began playing skits containing racist slurs.

“Since that day he’s been playing [N-word] skits that he found online,” Martinez said, skits that say: “Black people have nothing better to do but go to a comedy club on a Friday night,” and, “Hey everyone, look it’s [N-word] guy. Everyone say, ‘Hi [N-word] guy.’”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/30/virginia-beach-family-neighbor-racial-slurs-police

This neighbor probably has relatives and possibly even an employer. It is time to name and shame such assholes.